


What Can Be Said to Ruin a Man's Hard Work?

by StoryTellerBoneZone



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Character Study, Gen, If you want to take this as Klance, Lance is a little mature from normal, Langst, Season 2 End Spoilers, Slow Burn, That's ok, but that wasn't in my head when I wrote this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-25
Updated: 2017-03-25
Packaged: 2018-10-10 09:52:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10435104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StoryTellerBoneZone/pseuds/StoryTellerBoneZone
Summary: You know that one line? The single phrase that can ruin a single day? I just found mine today.A look into Lance's character after Shiro seemed to have vanish.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not spoiling what prompt I was inspired by until I'm finished, but you guys are going to hate me when I show you. Maybe. Hopefully. 
> 
> Now who wants to see our bisexual cuban son suffer? I know I do. :)

You know that one line? The single phrase that can ruin a single day? I just found mine today.

Let me explain. After our fight with Zarkon, we finally found out that Shiro has been in the astral plane recuperating from all his injuries, hanging out in Black's head, and all that jazz. There's a problem (Always a problem). Turns out because of some crazy thing that Zarkon did when he was the Black Paladin, we had to go inside Galra infested territory to one of their sacred locations to get him out.

Currently, I'm the temporary black paladin, with Allura joining us as the blue lion. Keith told us that Shiro wanted him to become the new leader of Voltron. I wasn't surprised. Keith was surprised that Pidge, Hunk, and I figured something like that happened. He seemed to mentally prepare for contingency plans a lot. Not all the time, but a lot.

We had a convoluted plan going. I was going to go into the red lion, Allura would take Big Beautiful Blue from me, and Keith would become the leader. Hunk and Pidge would retain their respective Lions. Problem is, Black denied him. None of us knew what to do. Keith had privy knowledge of what Shiro did to bond with Black, so after a few hours of screaming, banging on the barrier, and sulking in the training room, they started meditating together.

Allura, Coran, and I decided that adjusting Allura to Blue would be the best idea in our free time. Allura made a remark that she didn't feel comfortable being alone with me so she asked Coran. Hunk began to stress bake, like normal, and Pidge was on the search for another lost family member.

It wasn't a nice time.

Back on track, Allura sat in the cockpit while I instructed her how to speak to Blue. I had found out that me being able to hear my beautiful lion's voice was a sign of deep trust and showed how our relationship grew, and that it was rare for such a trait to happen. Made me sad to know I was going to be in the red lion.

It took some time, a lot of coaching from Coran, Blue, and myself, but Allura finally started to feel in sync with Blue. After a test run around the castle, and the subsequent crashing into the hull, we decided that it was enough. Still, it was painful to me to see Blue and Allura getting along so well. Blue told me that jealousy was a normal human response, and that she was still here for me. I hugged her paw in response.

After repairing the hull damage, Coran and I began to search through the archives that Blue had smacked next to. The topic of the day was black paladins, changing lions, and of Altean magic. At the time, I understood why we were both looking for the first two, but Coran was adamant about lying about the reason for magic.

Searching through the archive was a breeze. Throughout the months, Coran and I really hit it off. He's been teaching me Altean, and I've been teaching him spanish. Being Bilingual has its benefits, apparently. Altean is almost exactly like Mexican Spanglish, with a few nouns switched out for more alien words. It was very quick adjustment, and one that I"m still proud of (Pidge still can't decipher it).

We found a bunch of books and we both set off reading at our own paces. For fun, Coran gave me a few of his favorite novels, including one that he wrote on his own. I didn't know it at the time, but Coran really liked to write smut. Like a lot. Makes you think what perverse thoughts hide behind that gorgeous "uncle maybe secretly your dad" moustache of his.

In between sessions, meditations, and training, I seemed to be playing baby sitter with everyone. Hunk was stressed, we were all stressed. But Hunk seemed to always have the hardest time using his stress for something productive. I had to stop Hunk from cooking so much to spread our rations around. The worst part of it all is that he did really good at cooking. He said he was perfecting a few recipes Shay's grandmother gave him for when Shiro came back. Broke my heart when I had to eat such delicious food without our leader. Broke the toilet later when I found out I was allergic.

I set him off with a new task. It was simple, but the scope was massive. Coran and I had those books, but it wasn't easy. I had asked him to assist Coran into categorizing the information that we had in the castle archives. It should be a simple categorization system with a search engine. Hunk said it was no problem. I told him the castle has over the equivalent thousand terabytes of information stored on it (I admit, it was not as eloquent as that. I think I used the word "stuff" a few times in the sentence that was trying to explain it). He told me it was a slight problem. Hunk could enjoy the simple, if tedious, task to set himself busy.

Pidge was stuck in her room, again. Now, another tally mark in the box of "Family members forcibly taken away from her." Shiro was in the box originally, was erased, and now is back in the box with the other members of his original crew. When I found her, she was staying awake for almost two straight days relentlessly typing. She told me she didn't have time for breaks, not when her family was out there. She told me that she didn't eat because that was wasted time; and eating lead to her going to the bathroom, which was more wasted time.

I'm not the person to let my little siblings get away with neglecting themselves, and at this point, I've treated everyone on board as a little sibling who needs protection at some point or another. Pidge just happened to get the hermanita treatment the most. It took me only five sentences to make her look at herself. She was tired, I knew that. But that wasn't healthy. I carried her (piggy back style, in case someone gets the wrong idea) to the kitchen, and gave her some warm soup for her growling belly. I let her rest in the dining room area, rubbing her back. At some point while she ate in her sleep deprived state, she started to bawl her eyes out. She told me that she didn't deserve to eat while Shiro was out there. I don't hug the others often, but Pidge needed it then.

Poor Keith. At first, I didn't notice his behavior as extremely self destructive. But I know everyone on this ship; and I know everyone on this ship well. I knew he was taking it too well for the Keith I knew. During the third night of a missing Shiro, after I took care of a very sleepy Pidge who had spent the afternoon gorging herself with Hunk's pastries, I saw Keith sneaking out to the training room.

I knew he was training, but he never actively tried sneaking around. It sent some bells off that I knew I should have noticed sooner. Unlike the others, he hasn't eaten at all. He smelled horrible, probably didn't bathe. Both of which when I asked, he dismissed. I never figured out how to get through our little gayra paladin.

During our afternoon training sessions, he was wild and aggressive, far more than normal. At first, I figured it was because we didn't have Shiro to keep Keith calm and with the group. Now that Keith was calling the shots, we couldn't keep up with him. Hunk, Pidge, and I had to decide our own plans and act accordingly. When Allura joined, it was easier with an additional member, but it had it's own challenges.

Story time. The third day Shiro was missing around three Earth time. Allura had decided to join us as the blue paladin today. Our bayards seemed to change with the lion changes. My energy rifle had a bayonet at the end of it, similar to Keith's red blade. Allura's weapon, much to everyone's amusement, was a very long whip. I ended up the first person she used it on, after I made the remark about her being a slave driver. It was the first time I heard everyone laugh (Except Keith). Keith's weapon was his sword, except it seemed to be bigger in size, weight, and it had two hand guards.

I brought up the changes in our backyards and the addition of Allura for the training, and I suggested a battle plan with Keith. He blew me off, telling me that it doesn't matter and we should just fight. He started the training run, and it was a disaster.

Hunk and I immediately opened up with suppressing fire. Pidge went invisible and slinked off in a different area. Keith ran straight at the first target that spawned. Poor Allura was caught in the middle without a clue of what to do. Allura, within the first ten seconds of the simulation, was ringed out. Pidge put up a good fight, taking one or two robots out before being knocked out. Hunk and I did our best shooting robot after robot, back to back. Without the assistance of the others, it wasn't enough. We were kicked out around the same time. Keith was the only one who survived the level, standing in the middle of what would be a field of corpses demanding more.

Coran stopped the simulation, suggesting we eat lunch. Keith ignored him, and immediately took out some frustrations on Allura. How she had high standards for us yet completely blew it. Allura didn't take it well. I can't blame either of them, so I diffused the situation. I gave my opinion and I did it without relenting, even when Keith tried to speak over me. Hunk, Allura, and Pidge agreed. After that, a distraction here, a joke there to lighten the mood, and another distraction, and we were eating lunch. Except Keith.

So after that, I followed him to make sure that his emotions weren't running to high and stuff. He snuck into the training room and he was against a high level opponent. I watched from a dark corner. He started the fight with a passionate rage. If Lance was honest, the team emo was very aloof most of the time. He wasn't emotionally savvy, he didn't notice a lot of smaller details. He was a great pilot and an amazing combatant, but he always seemed to be mindless when he trained. Not today though. Today, this Keith had wet eyes, bandages over his hands, and a shriek that startled Lance.

He fought the high level robot, one that the entire team had difficulty with, with gusto. He slash after slash, Keith was really putting in some decent blows on it. It wasn't enough though. Keith was used to his red sword, an agile precise blade. Not the large, heavy sword he wields now. It's obvious he's frustrated. He was so used to using his superior agility that the huge yet subtle change was killing him. Fitting, in hindsight.

I took my eyes of Keith's sparring partner and onto Keith for a single moment, and I didn't notice the wind up attack from the robot. I didn't see it coming. Neither did Keith, judging from the fact that he was sent flying before the wall stopped him. He was prone on his stomach when the robot struck him again. I wasn't sure what he was doing, but I stopped the simulation before the next blow struck.

He was startled, like a cat who had been caught trying to eat the family goldfish. He started off with scared questions. I answered them as calmly as possible, making sure that he knew how much I was concerned for him. He quickly shifted into angry, aggressive, accusing words. He wanted to know what gave me the right to stalk him. I told him that it was ok for him to feel angry and frustrated and sad. But it wasn't ok for him to do this. He looked shocked, but I kept going. After a few more distractions, a few jokes, and me admitting that we were having a bonding moment, I got Keith to go to bed (I did have to pick him up though. He's much heavier than Pidge; but, at that moment, he was just another little sibling to me).

Before I went to bed for the night, I stopped by two Lions: My Big Beautiful Blue and Red. Every Night, I would come by Blue, climb up (or be boosted up) to her head to give her a night kiss and a head noogie. She normally purred with happiness, giddiness even. That night, she was much more sad. Red Lion was next. For red, I gave her a simple hug to her right paw. Since I secretly buff out the dents of the Lions and clean them of all the space goo we get hit by everyday, it wasn't hard for her to lower down her defenses (literally and figuratively). I told her I finally understand why she's so protective of Keith and I would try my best to do the same, even if I desperately need her help doing so. I think she approved.

By the time I reach my room, I think I passed out on my floor from pure exhaustion. Making sure the team remained functional, especially without Shiro was hard.


End file.
